Another eagle lost

It is with a heavy heart that I write this post. It seems like only yesterday that I was congratulating a young East Coast pair of Sea Eagles on their first fledgling. Now that young male is missing, presumed dead, in an area of Aberdeenshire fast becoming known as the Bermuda Triangle for eagles. Thanks to modern technology, his last known movements have been pinpointed to the North Glenbuchat Estate in Strathdon and police investigations there are ongoing. Coming so close on the heels of the mass poisoning of Red Kites and Buzzards in Ross-shire, this sad incident confirms 2014's designation as the Annus Horribilis for raptors in Scotland and we are not even one-third of the way through the year. I can only hope that some good will come of these terrible events and the Scottish Government will finally take action to stop the slaughter. A good start would be to re-examine the whole issue of Scottish estate ownership, as highlighted in an excellent article by Andy Wightman. How the SNP can talk about wanting a fairer Scotland where wealth is shared more equally and yet continue to allow estates to be owned by companies based in offshore tax havens is beyond me. Such non-transparency of ownership makes it very difficult to hold an owner to account for the actions of their estate workers. It's time the Scottish Government stopped kowtowing to wealthy landowners and made it clear that no-one is above the law in this country, no matter who they are or how much money they have. Choosing the Eagle, rather than the Red Grouse, as Scotland's national bird would be a good signal of their intentions. Meanwhile, I grieve the loss of a promising young Sea Eagle and hope that future East Coast youngsters will be born into a safer Scotland without the threat of poisoning.

Crossbow killer still on the loose

Calton would like to apologise to his regular readers for the lack of posts recently - he has had his beak stuck in a book. The RSPB British Birds of Prey book by Marianne Taylor with photos by Stig Frode Olsen to be precise. You can see how Calton was so riveted - apart from anything else he had to check that Stig had got his best side - although he was somewhat less than impressed with the description of Sea Eagles as "squat-bodied, cumbersome, short-tailed, long-necked, short-legged and big-headed". It went on to describe our expression as "outraged" - so would yours be given that list of epithets! That aside, it is an excellent book which details the struggles (still ongoing) between birds of prey and (some) humans and the attempts by other humans to assist us. Given the enduring popularity of the Mull Sea Eagles and the desire of many people, not just bird-watchers, to see an eagle, it is sad that Golden Eagles are still being killed on some of Scotland's shooting estates. It is downright tragic that Hen Harriers have all but disappeared from grouse moors in the North of England due to persecution and there was a successful initiative on twitter to rename August 12th "Hen Harrier Day" this year.

Unfortunately the persecution does not stop at raptors. News came today that a second gull had been shot with a crossbow in Inverness. Now, gulls are not Calton's favourite birds, however shooting them with a crossbow bolt, leaving them to die a lingering death, is utterly deplorable. Calton hopes that the person or persons responsible will be swiftly brought to justice for causing such unnecessary suffering. If you have any information that could lead to the apprehension of the individual(s) concerned, please contact Police Scotland - you could help prevent an even greater crime.

Hot air with nowhere to go

After spending some time at the sea on Friday, Calton decided to visit the mountains on Sunday, making the most of his chances to do so before they disappear under a forest of wind turbines. While there he kept his eyes peeled for any sign of the East Coast youngsters however they were nowhere to be seen and neither could he see any Golden Eagles. Unfortunately there is still a lot of work to be done to persuade shooting estates not to poison or otherwise kill raptors. On the windfarm front there was good news today with the refusal of planning consent for a windfarm near Drumnadrochit. How the developer can claim that it would have supported 1000 jobs over its lifetime is beyond Calton. He supposes the devil is in the detail - 999 jobs for a short time to build the thing and 1 job to permanently look after it (including sweeping up the remains of dead birds from around the towers and switching the whole thing off when it gets too windy). Meanwhile, it transpires that the government's Green Deal may result in people being roasted if we get any more summers like this one, especially if they live in the top of 1960s flats or modern detached homes. All that insulation is great in the winter but it prevents the heat escaping in summer. Perhaps there is something to be said for traditional methods of house-building using natural materials like slate and stone. Calton is certainly appreciating the slightly cooler temperatures after the heatwave of last week.

Crackdown still leaves silent killers

Calton welcomes the new crackdown on killing of birds of prey, although raptor persecution has been illegal for quite some time now and that has not stopped it happening. At least the new measures announced by Environment Minister Paul Wheelhouse indicate that the Scottish Government means business on this. That, or they have realised that the public don't like hearing about yet another poisoned eagle, buzzard or red kite. Calton wonders when the penny will drop that the public also don't like hearing about birds being killed by wind turbines. Eradicating poisoning, trapping and shooting of raptors will still leave silent killers dotting our hillsides, just waiting to clatter an unwary bird on the back of the head. The SNP's slavish adherence to ridiculous renewables targets is not only impoverishing the Scottish population, it is also trashing the countryside, killing wildlife and ruining our tourist industry. And it's not only wind turbines which threaten the countryside and wildlife - a proposed tidal scheme for Kylerhea will make a mockery of the scenes we have all recently been watching on the BBC Hebrides programme. Four towers sticking up out of the water just north of the ferry route have the potential to scare off the seals, and, with no seals to force the fish to the surface on the flow tide, the seagulls will not fish, and if the seagulls don't fish, the sea eagle will not be there to steal their fish and delight the tourists. Plus, it's just an accident waiting to happen with a combination of strong tides, amateur yachtsmen and four large obstacles in the water. It will spoil a beautiful, scenic spot and how many local jobs will it provide? Precious few, Calton suspects.

Teth aile nan Eilean Siar

Calton finds it really hard to believe the unnamed Scottish Government spokesperson who said, apropos the proposed Western Isles interconnector, that "Improved grid connections will enable the huge renewable energy resources of Scotland's islands to create jobs - up to 3,500 jobs in the Western Isles, almost 2,900 in the Shetlands and over 4,500 in the Orkney Islands by 2030." In the construction phase maybe but permanently? When, as Calton has already pointed out, a seven turbine windfarm can be managed by just two part-time technicians? If you do the maths, that means that there would need to be about 25,000 turbines on the Western Isles to give that level of full-time employment. That's 21 turbines per square mile and 8% of the total Western Isles population working on them. Well, they'll probably need to be right enough, because their tourism industry will have suffered the same fate as the White-throated Needletail and there will be no birdlife left anywhere on the islands - just a lot of sad little corpses littered around the bases of the turbines. Just as well the BBC filmed 'Hebrides' when they did. Or maybe the unnamed spokesperson is talking a lot of hot air?

A close escape

Calton is just glad he didn't decide to go to Harris for his holidays. Otherwise it might have been him lying on the ground under a community wind turbine. Having said that, Calton is generally in favour of small, local wind turbines and it is just really unfortunate that a rare visitor to our shores fell foul of one. What a majority of the visitors to our shores do not want to see is large scale industrialisation of our countryside with large windfarms, if the opinions of Scots are anything to go by.  It is encouraging to see that most Scots support the idea of protecting our wild land. Calton just wishes that more land would be designated as wild. Wildlife tourism is becoming increasingly important to the Scottish economy, helped by TV programmes like Hebrides, and it is about time the Scottish Government recognised this. How many more birdwatchers would have visited Harris if the poor White-throated Needletail had not come to an untimely end?

Tweeting is for the birds

Being of the opinion that tweeting was strictly for the youngsters, Calton has steadfastly avoided it but, having heard on the news tonight that an Eagle Owl in Inverness is tweeting, Calton has finally signed up, if only to find out what the European interloper is saying, or perhaps hooting would be a better word. (For those of you who are not familiar with birds of prey, an Eagle Owl is an owl and a Sea Eagle is an eagle. There is a big difference, not least in size. Not that Calton is crowing or anything.) It seems that the visitor to Inverness has not been very discriminate in its attacks - it has obviously not learned to recognise a politician yet. (Calton thinks that we would have heard by now if one of the victims had been the Red Squirrel of the North.) Better luck next time Owl.

There is such a thing as bad publicity

Calton would like to applaud the staff member who took a baby reindeer into Yorkhill Children's Hospital before Christmas so that children who were too ill to go outside could share in the fun. OK, so maybe they should have asked permission but it's heartwarming to think that something like that can still happen in this age of red tape and Elf Ann Safetee. It must have made the kids' day. Let's just hope they didn't then watch Snow Babies on BBC1, where one of Calton's relatives over in Scandinavia was seen snaffling a young reindeer for lunch. Not good PR for Sea Eagles even if they didn't show all the gory details! Calton would like to reassure any young readers he may have that he only eats politicians, and, if the ones at Westminster keep on shooting themselves in the foot, they will be easy prey!

Killer blades

Regular readers of this blog will know that Calton is not a fan of windfarms. One of the reasons is the fact that, as far as Sea Eagles are concerned, they are killers. Although the blades of a large turbine may not seem to be going round all that fast, their tips can be travelling through the air at 150mph. How would you like to be whacked on the back of the head by the equivalent of an express train while innocently going about your daily business? Sadly, lots of Norwegian Sea Eagles, and one which had been introduced into Ireland, have had just that experience with fatal results. Calton is just hoping that the youngsters which are soon to be released into the wild in Fife will have the sense to avoid the monstrosity which FMC Technologies has erected on the edge of Dunfermline.

A rare bird

The RSPB has been mapping the decline in numbers of Calton's ancestors in Britain and Ireland since the time of King Arthur using place names with the word 'eagle' in them. Interesting stuff. It just goes to show what a rare specimen Calton is. Gone are the days when we used to hold sway over large parts of the UK. Sea Eagles occupy only a fraction of their former territory while the recovery of the Golden Eagle population has stalled. Last year saw a fall in the number of bird poisoning incidents - hopefully this marks the start of a downward trend. Certainly the introduction of vicarious liability for landowners may help stamp out the practice. No punishment is too severe for those who illegally kill birds in Calton's opinion!

When cosying up costs

Sometimes you can get too close, as a pair of English photographers found out when they tried to get some shots of Calton's cousins on the Isle of Mull. They have been fined a total of £1100, which maybe explains why no-one wants to cosy up to Calton.

Advocates for Sea Eagles

Balancing the interests of the various stakeholders in rural areas is not always easy, however Calton was glad to see that a report earlier this year put the damage done to flocks by his west coast cousins at less than 2% of lamb mortality. Sea Eagles eat mainly seabirds and fish, although they also eat carrion, which may explain why Calton likes to get his beak into politicians. It may also explain why they are blamed for taking lambs. Tales of Sea Eagles carrying off children are an unfounded rumour spread by the Scottish Gamekeepers Association, who are not exactly a disinterested party. The RSPB are countering this by appointing representatives to teach children more about these wonderful birds. Not forgetting the fact that the Mull Sea Eagles boost the island's economy by £2million. Of course, Calton is biased, but he does think that the reintroduction of his species into Scotland is a good thing. Sarah Boyack seems to agree.